Beyond the Eternity

Once the message disappeared, I stared into the empty space for a while before returning back to the middle of the safe zone.

I picked up the box filled with cores and moved spots. The floor was filled with blood so I had no choice but to move my position.

[01 : 58 : 18]

There was not alot of time. The battle took longer than I expected. In any case, now that it was over, it was time to proceed with my initial plan.

After picking my spot, I drew a circle on the ground before setting up the box and sitting on the floor.

"I will say this again. If you want to purchase cores, then you have to pay 100 coins. However, don't cross this circle."

Everyone in the crowd scrambled around, looking at each other anxiously as if they did not know what to do.

It was then...

Step, Step-!

A man stepped out from the crowd and approached. Surprisingly, it was a familiar face.

"Jakga-ssi, I will like to purchase a few cores."

It was Lee Kwangsun, the doctor. Wasn't he part of the mainframe group?

Well, that doesn't matter. Since he approached me without a weapon or crossing the line, it meant he came as a customer.

"How many do you want?"

"I will take 20."

"That will be 2000 coins."

He didn't speak further and just carried out the transaction before collecting the cores.

[You have obtained 2000 coins.]

As the doctor transfered the coins, he faced the people and spoke with a loud voice.

"What are you thinking is wrong. None of these cores here were obtained by stealing. It was all obtained by hunting."

"How are you sure?"

"How many monsters do you think he killed in order to get that strong?"

Everyone went quiet as if they were mute. From what they had seen, they couldn't fandom how many monsters a person would have to kill to get that strong. In the end, they all believed the doctor's words.

Kwangsun began to speak, "Besides, if Jakga was the kind of person that gained cores from stealing from others, wouldn't everyone here have died?"

His words were true. Almost everyone here was branded with the slave mark. If I had chosen to accept his gift, everyone here would have died and their cores would be completely mine. However, I didn't go down that route.

There were several reasons for my decision. One, most of the constellations would have become my enemy. Two, if I killed those people, nobody will buy my cores. And more importantly, I personally didn't want to go down that route.

There was a person I know that went down that route and things didn't exactly go well for her. I didn't want to repeat the same mistake.

"This is not a lawless world."

Such a casual sentence bought change to the people.

I recalled what Minhyuk told me from before. I've been thinking about it over and realised he was wrong. Even though the old world no longer existed, it was impossible for the new world to be lawless. As long as more than three people were present, there was bound to be at least some unspoken laws and rules.

This was a world ruled by the strong. As such, the laws are decided by them. In such a world, all I had to do was become strong.

The people were silent for a while before someone stepped out from the crowd and approached. It was a girl that looked around her late teens.

"Please give me ten."

"That will be 1000 coins."

She nodded her head and proceeded with the transfer.

[You have obtained 1000 coins.]

Confirming the transfer, I grabbed ten cores and handed it to the girl.

After that, the people started to approach me one by one.

"M-Me too!"

"Give me ten cores…!"

"Give me eleven!"

"Shit! I don't have enough coins. Can anyone lend me a few? I promise I will pay it back in the next scenario."

In no time, the safe zone became a marketplace.

* * *

[You have received 1500 coins.]

[You have received 700 coins.]

[You have received 1000 coins.]

[You have received 2000 coins.]

[You have received 1100 coins.]

[...]

* * *

While receiving the countless steam of notifications, I continued to sell the cores at an alarming rate. Since this was a time where most people will be lacking cores, I received a large number of customers.

It seems everyone had already forgotten about the fight earlier and were focused on the cores. Some of them didn't have money so they either borrowed coins from other players or sold their items on the shop .

At some point, Aurora was summoned since the people didn't know how to sell their items on the shop.

The fairy was floating around here and there, looking at various items bought forward by the survivors.

"I can sell this item, right?"

"I only have this torch and wristwatch with me."

The transaction between the survivors and the fairy proceeded just as I imagined.

In the Scenario Shop, there was a sell back function. Basically, it allowed the incarnations to get back the coins they consumed by reselling their items. Then the repurchased items will be sold to the participants of the next Nightmare. However, this function was rarely used by walkers with a working brain because of obvious reasons.

[Hmmm. That item is damaged so I can only give you 200 coins.]

[And for that, I will give you 300 coins.]

"Hey, that's completely unfair!"

"Are you trying to scam us, you stupid fairy?!"

[Then go and sell your stupid items somewhere, you useless monkeys!]

The Fairy spat out unreasonable prices without a hint of mercy. Items that were purchased for 1,000 coins were only being offered 300 or 400 coins now.

To be fair, the market value of used items will obviously be low. An A-grade sword used by a random swordsman for 20 years will not have the same market value as it did 20 years prior.

Even so, wasn't those prices completely unreasonable? That fairy really have no mercy when it comes to incarnations. Speaking of which, when will I have the chance to sell that core?

Suddenly, Aurora opened her little mouth and suggested something.

[If you are lacking items to sell, you can always sell your stats.]

"W-What? You can sell your stats?"

"That's possible?"

[Of course. If you can increase it with coins, what makes you think you can't sell it. Anyways, It's 100 coins per stat if you're interested then pay quickly.]

Once the survivors realised they can sell their stats, they surrounded the fairy and carried out the transaction.

I sighed and shook my head. Those people didn't know that selling their stats was a bad move in this stage.

How could they possibly prepare for the impending nightmares with their current low stats? What if they found themselves in a perilous situation without the coins needed to boost their stats?

Overall, the risk was too great. Numerous things could go wrong at any moment. However, dwelling on these possibilities was futile. If I genuinely cared about their survival, I wouldn't be here selling them all these cores. It was akin to a shopkeeper selling cigarettes to their customers despite knowing it can kill them.

After all, smoking claims more lives daily than armed conflict. Yet, people continue to sell these deadly products every day.

"Um, excuse me. I would like to purchase a few cores. You haven't run out, right?"

"How many do you want?"

"Please give me 20."

20 cores. That was a pretty big order. I took a close look at the new customer. It was a skinny boy in his mid-teens. He had a weapon, and possessed a few cores.

Poor stats and low cores. It was a wonder how he was able to survive till now. Someone like him wouldn't have even reached the third nightmare. He must have sold his stats to get coins for the cores. I could understand his will to survive but at this rate, he might not survive the next Nightmare scenario.

[You have received 2000 coins.]

In any case, after I received the payment, I handed the requested cores to the boy.

"Here you go. It's was nice doing business with you."

"Thank you."

Once the boy received the cores, he nodded his head and moved away from me. Our transaction was over so there was no need for him to stay.

Like this, more than 50 people had purchased cores from me. I opened the system window to check the total coins I had in my possession.

[Total Coins: 180, 256C]

The profit was much higher than I originally anticipated. It was the combination of the overall coins I made throughout the nightmare trials; the monsters, the gifts from the constellations and the sales of cores.

Haven't I made more than the coins I previously consumed?

I initially planned on getting around 100K at the end of the third nightmare. But this development was much better than expected.

It was alot of coins even in a grand sense. In fact, most walkers don't get that amount of coins unless they reach or pass the 10th Nightmare.

On top of that, I still had something that I wanted to sell but I couldn't reveal that thing in public. Perhaps I should wait when we start to move.

Jung Yunhee, who approached, stared at the empty box as if she couldn't believe it.

"No way, everything is gone?"

"You have eyes, right? So why are you asking?"

"You are really rude, you know."

"I don't want to hear that from you. Didn't we have a passionate encounter last time?"

"I don't know what you're talking about?"

Look at this shameless girl. She pinned me against the wall but now she's pretending as if nothing happened or maybe did she want to remember that encounter since she was embarrassed.

She faked a cough and then opened her mouth.

"In any case, why did you choose to sell your cores to the survivors?"

I made a confused expression. It was a strange question so it couldn't be helped.

"To make profit. What else?

"Don't play dumb. If you really wanted to make profit, you could have sold the cores in the shop and avoided all this headache. You think I do not know?"

I was quiet for a moment. How was I easily caught.

[A few constellations are curious of your answer.]

I forgot the constellations were also watching. They have been quiet for a long time so I thought they must have left the world channel.

"Why did you do it?"

Jung Yunhee looked emotionless but as it turns out, she was a rather curious fellow. If she was an animal, I would have called her a curious rabbit

I sighed and then opened my mouth to answer her question.

"I wanted to break the chains binding these people and reveal Kim Minhyuk's true nature. This method allowed me to achieve both goals simultaneously."

Though I didn't care much for the other survivors, I realized it would be pointless if they all perished. Actually, it would be pointless if every survivor in Seoul died. They will be useful in the upcoming nightmare trials.

"Wasn't that dangerous? You do realise alot of things could have gone wrong, right? What if you were attacked? What if Minhyuk just ordered everyone to kill each other?"

"Hmm. That's true but that's the beauty of it all. Such a scenario didn't occur so everything worked out in the end, isn't that right?"

"You mean to say that everything completely depended on luck?"

"That's right."

"Tch."

Jung Yunhee made an irritated sound. Perhaps she was expecting a more satisfacting answer from me. Even so, she changed her expression and her cheeks loosened.

"Fine. But what are we going to do now? The trial is almost over."

Upon her words, I checked the time remaining for the nightmare trial.

[01 : 11 : 58]

One hour. That was certainly not alot of time. But at this point, the survivors already possessed the required amount of cores to pass the scenario. For that reason, there wasn't much to do except for one thing.

I opened my mouth and then pulled out the smartphone.

"We will wait in the safe zone until the trial is over."